New Jersey

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As used in this act “sport and recreational activities” means and includes: hunting, fishing, trapping, horseback riding, training of dogs, hiking, camping, picnicking, swimming, skating, skiing, sledding, tobogganing, operating or riding snowmobiles, all-terrain vehicles or dirt bikes, and any other outdoor sport, game and recreational activity including practice and instruction in any thereof. For purposes of P.L.1968, c. 73 (C. 2A:42A-2 et seq.) “all-terrain vehicle” means a motor vehicle, designed to travel over any terrain, of a type possessing between three and six rubber tires and powered by a gasoline engine not exceeding 600 cubic centimeters, but shall not include golf carts; “snowmobile” means any motor vehicle, designed primarily to travel over ice or snow, of a type which uses sled type runners, skis, an endless belt tread, cleats or any combination of these or other similar means of contact with the surface upon which it is operated, but does not include any farm tractor, highway or other construction equipment, or any military vehicle; “dirt bike” means a motor powered vehicle possessing two or more tires, designed to travel over any terrain and capable of travelling off of paved roads, whether or not such vehicle is subject to registration with the Division of Motor Vehicles

2A:42A-3. Duty to keep premises safe for entry or use of others

Except as provided in section 3 of this act [FN1]:
(a) An owner, lessee or occupant of premises, whether or not posted as provided in section 23:7-7 of the Revised Statutes, and whether or not improved or maintained in a natural condition, or used as part of a commercial enterprise, owes no duty to keep the premises safe for entry or use by others for sport and recreational activities, or to give warning of any hazardous condition of the land or in connection with the use of any structure or by reason of any activity on such premises to persons entering for such purposes;
(b) An owner, lessee or occupant of premises who gives permission to another to enter upon such premises for a sport or recreational activity or purpose does not thereby (1) extend any assurance that the premises are safe for such purpose, or (2) constitute the person to whom permission is granted an invitee to whom a duty of care is owed, or (3) assume responsibility for or incur liability for any injury to person or property caused by any act of persons to whom the permission is granted.

2A:42A-4. Liability towards persons injured on premises

This act shall not limit the liability which would otherwise exist:
(a) For willful or malicious failure to guard, or to warn against, a dangerous condition, use, structure or activity; or
(b) For injury suffered in any case where permission to engage in sport or recreational activity on the premises was granted for a consideration other than the consideration, if any, paid to said landowner by the State; or
(c) For injury caused, by acts of persons to whom permission to engage in sport or recreational activity was granted, to other persons as to whom the person granting permission, or the owner, lessee or occupant of the premises, owes a duty to keep the premises safe or to warn of danger.

2A:42A-5. Damages for death or injury to person or property

Nothing in this act shall create a duty of care or ground of liability for damages for the death or injury to person or property.

Method of Assessment: Use value based on classification and soil productivity for agricultural lands including land used for forestry.

Application: Required

Plan Requirements: If there is more woodland than crop or pastureland or if the tract is totally wooded, a certified woodlot-management plan is also required. This plant must be prepared in accordance with policies, guidelines and practices approved by the Division of Parks and Forestry in the Department of Environmental Protection, in consultation with the Department of Agriculture and the Dean of Cook College at Rutgers, The State University. N.J.S.A. § 54:4-23.3http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/Default.asp

Penalty: When land use is not for agricultural purposes, roll-back Taxes shall be assessed at an amount equal to the difference, if any, between the taxes paid or payable on the basis of the valuation and the assessment authorized and the taxes that would have been paid or payable had the land been valued, assessed and taxed as other land in the taxing district, in the current tax year (the year of change in use) and in such of the two tax years immediately preceding, in which the land was valued, assessed and taxed.

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-New Jersey statute, which precludes grant of immunity to landowner of recreational park, if permission to engage in sport or recreational activity on premises is granted for consideration, did not require injured visitor to pay consideration in order to enjoy protection from exception to grant of immunity and, therefore, applied due to payment of consideration by cottage lessees whose guests were permitted to use cottage and whose guests invited injured visitor.

Krevics v. Ayers 358 A.2d 844

-The Landowner's Liability Act was intended to protect landowners from liability only when it would be unreasonable to expect the landowner to maintain supervision over the property in question, and the key is the size and nature of the property as well as the quality of the hazard.
-Size of 11-acre tract of woodland was such as to qualify its owner for protection under the Landowner's Liability Act, and the recreational activity of motorbiking fell within the requirement of a “sport and recreational” activity so as to invoke the protection of the Act; but the “quality” of the hazard created by landowner in placing a cable across the motorbike trail was such that landowner was not entitled to invoke the protection of the Act with respect to injuries sustained by person who was riding along trail on motorbike and came in contact with the cable at dusk, when the cable was indistinguishable from the surrounding woodland.
-Under the Landowner's Liability Act, permission granted to use lands for sport and recreational activity does not include assurance that the premises are safe for such use, nor does it raise licensee to the status of an invitee; but such protections do not apply when the landowner deliberately creates the hazard.

Tallaksen v. Ross 167 N.J. Super 1

-Despite land's zoning classification as residential lands and its proximity to developed residential areas and fact that ice on which infant plaintiff fell resulted from freezing of waters diverted to land by man-made drains, landowner was immune from liability by virtue of Landowner's Liability Act for injuries sustained by infant plaintiff while on privately held undeveloped land for recreational purposes.

This program was partially funded by the Multistate Conservation Grant Program (Grant DC M-59-R), a program supported with funds from the Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Program of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and jointly managed with the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, 2007.